People with disabilities’ needs in urban spaces as challenges towards a more inclusive smart city

Abstract

Cities are the new frontier for computational platforms. As urban spaces are equipped with hardware and software solutions, inhabitants benefit from several Smart Cities applications that promise to improve their quality of life, while dealing with problems of our contemporary society, such as transportation, health, education, environmental issues, among others. People with disabilities (PwD) are a very active part of the urban population and, hence, they should be benefited by the advancements brought by Smart City initiatives. We designed an online questionnaire that led us to investigate what for and how people with different types of disabilities use technology in urban spaces, as well as the problems these users have in this context. With the results found, it is possible to observe that the specific needs and requirements that PwD have in urban spaces can help professionals to develop innovative projects that engage Smart City enabling technologies, and will induct a positive social impact.